Population Health Research
Cascadia’s Population Health & Research team strives to improve the health outcomes of the individuals receiving care at Cascadia. Through research and innovation, the team identifies and creates, opportunities to partner with programs to develop interventions that support the overall health and wellness of those receiving services. By engaging in population health management strategies, as well as targeting upstream determinants of health, Cascadia can begin to address health disparities and inequities and reverse the statistic of premature mortality for individuals with serious mental illness. Population Health & Research team members offer expertise in project management, data analysis, program implementation, program evaluation, and application of public health frameworks to existing clinical models.
Learn more about Cascadia’s Population Health projects below.
Diabetes and Mental Health
A significant percentage of the American population lives with diabetes, and those numbers are two to three times higher for individuals with a mental health issue. Diabetes symptoms can be more severe for these individuals, as they face the challenges of managing their physical and behavioral health. Additionally, diabetes and mental health are mutually reinforcing; diabetes can increase mental health challenges, and psychiatric medications used to treat mental health can worsen or even cause diabetes. To address disparities in our population, Cascadia’s Population Health team set out with a goal of supporting integrated healthcare for clients with diabetes and developed an intervention program that focused on improving whole health and diabetes self-management for clients who have diabetes or pre-diabetes and a co-occurring mental illness.
Integrated Healthcare
Cascadia publicly shared results following the first year of its integrated healthcare model, which included reduced healthcare costs, improved quality of care and changes in health outcomes. Cascadia became a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) in 2017, which provided the necessary funding to introduce care coordination and primary care services to its continuum of care. Cascadia now serves over 3,700 clients with integrated healthcare. Cascadia found that clients receiving integrated healthcare over this time period experienced, on average, reductions in potentially preventable emergency department utilization (18%) and hospitalizations (23%).
